Bush to ditch the Crawford "ranch?"

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Tuesday January 03, 2006 · 3:26 PM PST

2006/01/03 · 15:26

Rumor has it that President Bush is planning to dump his "ranch" outside Crawford, Texas as soon as he doesn't need it for those gritty, hard-workin' photo ops anymore.

Page Six speculates:

Some wager the Bushes would resettle in Highland Park, the tony township inside Dallas. Many Bush cronies live there, including Laura's pal Debbie Francis, whose husband, Jim, was chairman of the Bush Pioneers fund-raising group in the 2000 campaign.

Say it ain't so! Bush is a cowboy! How could a cowboy be content living in some ivy-covered, flagstone-paved uptown neighborhood in Dallas? How could he be happy without brush to clear? Read More

Un-American Caesar

hbyronk

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Monday January 02, 2006 · 6:38 PM PST

2006/01/02 · 18:38

Is it hyperbolic or, perhaps worse, a cliche to point out that we are on the verge of losing the rule of law in the United States? It can happen, make no mistake. We have started down a path that would be familiar to anyone who has lived, suffered and died under other enlightened, democratic nations that have allowed themselves to slide into totalitarianism.

Lately, I am struck by George W. Bush's resemblance to Julius Caesar, as portrayed by Ciaran Hinds in HBO's excelelent series "Rome." I do not know if that character was drawn as an allegory to our own feckless leader, but the parallels are disturbing. Read More

NSA Leak Investigation - Why now?

hbyronk

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Friday December 30, 2005 · 10:36 AM PST

2005/12/30 · 10:36

The AP reports that the Justice Dept. is investigating the revelation of Bush's illegal NSA domestic spying program, according to unnamed sources.

The officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the inquiry will focus on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Times revealed the existence of the program two weeks ago in a front-page story that acknowledged the news had been withheld from publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various aspects of the program.

hbyronk

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Thursday December 29, 2005 · 7:43 AM PST

2005/12/29 · 07:43

One of the snide, elitist raps against blogs is that they couldn't exist without the mainstream media to mine for information.

This is a case of a mainstream news outlet mining blogs for information.

Via Romenesko, the Raleigh News & Observer used a family's blogs to beef up its reporting on a murder story.

Sixteen year old Becky Berkley's stepmother and former boyfriend were among the suspects charged with killing Becky's father, Paul.

The News & Observer writes that several members of the Berkley family, including Becky, maintained personal blogs. Read More

CIA investigates 'erroneous renditions'

hbyronk

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Wednesday December 28, 2005 · 5:28 AM PST

2005/12/28 · 05:28

The Inspector General of the CIA is investigating the possibility that people unconnected to terrorist activities have been snatched up in Bush's Extraordinary Rendition program.

The AP reports:

Some 100 to 150 people have been snatched up since 9/11. Government officials say the action is reserved for those considered by the CIA to be the most serious terror suspects.
Bush has said that these transfers to other countries -- with assurances the terror suspects won't be tortured -- are a way to protect the United States and its allies from attack. "That was the charge we have been given," he said in March.
But some operations are being questioned.
The CIA's inspector general, John Helgerson, is looking into fewer than 10 cases of potentially "erroneous renditions," according to a current intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are classified. Others in the agency believe it to be much fewer, the official added.
For instance, someone may be grabbed wrongly or, after further investigation, may not be as directly linked to terrorism as initially believed.

hbyronk

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Friday December 23, 2005 · 3:31 PM PST

2005/12/23 · 15:31

NBC is purchasing from Microsoft an 82 percent controlling interest in third-place cable news network MSNBC. I hope it can turn things around. I have already noticed a sea change in MSNBC's efforts to reach a broader audience. After hitting a moral low by firing Phil Donahue and hiring Michael Savage a couple of years ago, the network seems to have decided on a slightly leftward tilt. They are even promoting Keith Olbermann on some of the the most prominent liberal blogs.

But, one paragraph really jumped out at me from this New York Times story about the takeover:

Today MSNBC still ranks a distant third behind Fox News and Time Warner Inc.'s CNN in the Nielsen ratings, with just 257,000 viewers in November, versus 449,000 for CNN and 889,000 for Fox News.

Fox "News" is number-one in the cable wars with fewer than 900,000 viewers for an entire sweeps month? Heck, Atrios has had 900,000 visits so far this week! Kos average 650,000 visits in a single day!

In this light, Bill O'Reilly just doesn't seem like that big a deal, does he?

UncommonSense

Scott McClellan: The 'Unanswer Man'

hbyronk

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Thursday December 22, 2005 · 4:37 AM PST

2005/12/22 · 04:37

Today's Washington Post contains a 2,400 word story about Scott McClellan's ability to confound the White House press corps by:

Titled "Unanswer Man," the piece contains passages such as the following: Read More

NSA spying snared 'purely domestic' calls

hbyronk

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Wednesday December 21, 2005 · 4:43 AM PST

2005/12/21 · 04:43

Drip, drip, drip.

Here we go.

A surveillance program approved by President Bush to conduct eavesdropping without warrants has captured what are purely domestic communications in some cases, despite a requirement by the White House that one end of the intercepted conversations take place on foreign soil, officials say.

Well, of course they intercepted a number of "purely domestic communications." Bush said they hadn't done any such thing. What could that have meant except the precise opposite of what he said? With this president, you have to assume that the first, second and, often, third answers are lies.

Last night I expressed the wish that some conscientious whistle-blower would just open the floodgates on this mess and get it all over with. Leak the list, already! We know who is on it: Howard Dean; John Kerry; Bill Keller; Dana Priest; Michael Moore; Etc, etc, etc.

Now, I'm thinking Bush should just take a deep breath and release the list himself. Rip the bandage off, so to speak. Anything would be better than the death-by-inches we are witnessing now.

UncommonSense

The 'Bush Bubble' Pushback - Try again, guys!

hbyronk

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Thursday December 15, 2005 · 8:07 AM PST

2005/12/15 · 08:07

If the Bush-is-not-really-in-a-bubble spin campaign hopes to restore the president's credibility, I'm not sure that a sit-down interview with official state-run media is the way to do it. They might try having him field questions from somebody other than an administration lickspittle like Britt Hume.

And, if the point is to demonstrate that Bush is, in fact, not in a bubble, it would help to have him avoid saying things that demonstrate that he is almost totally disconnected from reality (italics added): Read More

Evangelicals angry over Bush's Holiday Card

hbyronk

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Wednesday December 07, 2005 · 5:05 AM PST

2005/12/07 · 05:05

America's Christmas Warriors are apoplectic over the official White House Holiday Card. That's right, "holiday card."

President Bush is sending out cards wishing friends and supporters a "happy holiday season."

The Washington Post reports that the card bears "a generic season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White House lawn." Read More

Sam Alito - Christmas Warrior

hbyronk

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Tuesday December 06, 2005 · 7:27 AM PST

2005/12/06 · 07:27

Conservatives have decided, apparently, that they cannot make the case in favor of President Bush's Supreme Court nominees without exploiting religion and its attendant passions.

First, Bush famously answered a question about Harriet Miers' qualifications with the assertion that her religion is part of her life. Now, Samuel Alito is being drafted to fight in the War on Christmas^® on the side of the religious right. Read More

Listen up, Democrats. This is how to win.

hbyronk

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday December 02, 2005 · 1:31 PM PST

2005/12/02 · 13:31

The Nation, in assessing the stabbing death of the Bush anti-Social Security plan, demonstrates the importance of standing on Democratic principles.

The editorial casts the campaign against privatization in clear terms as a victory for Democratic unity in defending the traditions of liberalism. Read More

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Bush to ditch the Crawford "ranch?"

Un-American Caesar

NSA Leak Investigation - Why now?

Using blogs to enhance news reporting

CIA investigates 'erroneous renditions'

Cable News versus the blogosphere

Scott McClellan: The 'Unanswer Man'

NSA spying snared 'purely domestic' calls

The 'Bush Bubble' Pushback - Try again, guys!

Evangelicals angry over Bush's Holiday Card

Sam Alito - Christmas Warrior

Listen up, Democrats. This is how to win.